This was not supposed to be a review about the Westmeadows Tavern. Our original plan was to do a review of the Irish pub known as P.J. O’Briens, located within the Melbourne Airport. We loaded up the parma bus and headed down, only to discover that the place was absolutely packed and there were no seats available, I normally call ahead and book our visits, but when I tried to call yesterday the number they had listed on their website was not the number for P.J’s, and thus no booking was made.

So standing in the middle of the airport, out front of a pub that wouldn’t take us, we decided to abandon P.J’s and go to the next closest pub we could think of, The Westmeadows Tavern (or ‘the Westy pub’ to locals).

Luckily for us, tables were in abundance at the Westy, we took our seats the bistro of a surprisingly large building (reminiscent of the Keilor Hotel) and ordered our Parmas.

Now this little snafoo with P.J’s had put us well and truly behind our usual schedule - We were all absolutely starving and our extreme hunger might have made it seem like the parma took longer to arrive than it actually did - but we were salivating by the time the chicken hit the table

With little hesitation, we dug in. The schnitzel was quality chicken kind of small and a little on the thin side of things (not terrible, but not great … I should start bringing a ruler to reviews so I give you an accurate measurement). If you like saucy parmas, then this one is for you, a ridiculous amount of napoli was dropped in the center, under a heap of cheese and on top of a tasty slice of ham - unfortunately even though there was a lot of it, they neglected to spread it all the way to the edge, leaving a fair bit of full frontally nude schnitzel, and caused some blackening of the edges.

The chips were minimal, but tasty - like the parma they were a little on the overcooked side. Completely unseasoned but with salt shakers on the table, I would’ve been happier with them if I had an extra handful - Reviewer Nikki had the extra handful I desired, however her parma was about an inch or so smaller than everyone else’s, not sure which of those trade off’s I would prefer.

I’ve never seen a salad with such an identity crisis, There was so many different ingredients packed into that little bowl I couldn’t decipher what it was trying to be! It contained -

Lettuce (two kinds)

Onion (lots of onion)

Cucumber

Tomato

Olives

Orange slices

Cream dressing

It was like the bastard lovechild of an Italian salad and a garden salad, That being said it was pretty tasty, although way too much onion, I was picking it out of the salad throughout the meal and eating it with the chicken just to tone down the overdose of onion in the salad itself … no kisses for me tonight!

The Westy parma was okay - I definitely left satisfied but nothing to write home about, unfortunately clocking in at $22.00 its very pricey for what you are getting, which brought its ‘value’ score down a fair whack. Apparently on Monday nights they offer a $12 parma night, with the option of Hawaiian, Mexican or Meatlovers varieties - Definitely something I would check out if I were in the area on a Monday night. I hope to one day try the P.J’s parma we intended to, but It will take awhile to get over the trauma of our first turn-away.

Parma - 6.3

Chips - 5.9

Salad - 4.3

Value - 4.3

Total - 5.41

The search continues…

I just want to quickly point out that this attempt marks our 25th Official attempt to find the perfect parma. I know its only a small milestone but I just want to send out a big thanks to everyone who makes Parmadaze possible!

To the followers - Keep up the awesome work, I never thought we would ever get so many regular readers, I hope you enjoy my ramblings about a piece of chicken and be sure to keep reading!

To the Pubs - Thanks for putting up with us, keep up the awesome work and keep striving for that perfect Parma

And finally to the Parmadaze review team! I couldn’t do it without you guys, Thanks for giving up your Wednesday nights to come and eat some schnitzel and give your opinion. Here’s to another 25 parmas! (And many, many more!)